How do we create a transportation system design that far exceeds the efficiency and safety of today’s transportation models?
One answer to that question was provided by Anthony Barrs and Baiyu Chen of Team Berkeley, who won AEM’s Infrastructure Vision 2050 Challenge during a live finale event at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2017 in Las Vegas this March.
“I think the key takeaway is that we don’t have to accept the flaws and the status quo,” shared Barrs. “There is a lot of opportunity to think outside of the box and do some really cool stuff to rethink the challenges we have with infrastructure today. So be inspired and let’s find new ways to do things.”
Launched by AEM in January 2016, the Infrastructure Vision 2050 Challenge is a crowdsourced, incentivized competition for world innovators to design a transportation system that would move people more safely and efficiently than today’s existing network. During the Challenge finale, five competitors pitched their ideas to a panel of judges live for a top prize of $50,000.
Challenge competitors Barrs and Chen took first place for their Hyperlane design.
“What AEM tried to do was to tap into a global community of innovators and inspire them to think big about what’s next for U.S. infrastructure,” explained Kip Eideberg, AEM vice president, public affairs and advocacy.
The Hyperlane concept proposes new infrastructure that allows autonomous vehicles to travel at high speeds along existing roadways and to guard against congestion in the Hyperlanes by using surge pricing.
AEM’s Infrastructure Vision 2050 Challenge is part of a larger policy-focused thought-leadership initiative launched by AEM in 2015 to develop a long-term national vision for United States infrastructure.
“AEM is playing a proactive role in the U.S. infrastructure conversation and we’re ready to move forward and stop talking about the status quo and start proactively talking about solutions,” commented Kate Fox Wood, campaign director, Infrastructure Vision 2050.
See a full wrap-up of AEM’s Infrastructure Vision 2050 Challenge Finale event here.
